Korean and Vietnamese adoptees on the intimate racialized politics of transracial adoption

The dynamics of adoptee communities have shifted in the decades since the first edition of OUTSIDERS WITHIN was published in 2006, yet the volume continues to provide critical perspectives that have gained renewed relevance during contemporary crises. Here, three writers and artists, Korean and Vietnamese adoptees who were adopted across geographic borders in the 1970s, talk isolation, racism, identity struggle, adoption policy, and how the Internet has changed the ways connection can be found. This conversation was recorded in May 2021.

Jane Jeong Trenka is an activist and award-winning writer who was adopted from South Korea to Minnesota in 1972. She has a master of public administration from Seoul National University and was instrumental in revising Korea’s adoption law in 2011. She is author of the memoir ‘The Language of Blood’ and co-editor of ‘Outsiders Within,’ published in a new edition by University of Minnesota Press.

Dr. Indigo Willing is a sociologist, lecturer, and creator of the Adopted Vietnamese International (AVI) network for adoptees from the Vietnamese community and war refugee generation. She lives in Australia.

kimura byol-nathalie lemoine is an artist, activist, and archivist, and a Korean-born adoptee who grew up in Belgium and currently resides in Montreal. kimura*lemoine is co-founder of Euro-Korean League and an active member and archivist for the interracial adoptee community.

Outsiders Within: z.umn.edu/outsiderswithin